__CFNSString to NSString loses special chars

Question

I have a weird issue. I have a UTF-8 encoded json which is converted to models via RestKit.

When I view the contents of my model I get a nice string with special chars with phrases like "los kaartje €17,50 (o.a. te koop" (notice the €-sign)

Now when I save the value in a NSString like this:

NSString *placeholder = self.event.description;

My string suddenly becomes los kaartje ?17,50 (o.a. te koop (notice the €-sign being gone).

I can't figure out why. The only thing I noticed is that self.event.description is a __NSCFString * instead of a NSString *